Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Marathon Asset Management LP, the
hedge fund that called on American Airlines to broaden talks
with creditors in its bankruptcy case, seeks a court-ordered
investigation into an intercompany debt deal at the airline.

Before last year’s bankruptcy filing, AMR Corp.’s American
took on $2.26 billion in debt that regional carrier American
Eagle owed under aircraft-financing agreements, Marathon said in
a filing yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

“The prepetition transactions raise serious questions as
to whether American Airlines received fair value in exchange for
incurring the billions of dollars in debt and as to whether
these transactions were otherwise improper,” Marathon said.

Marathon and Appaloosa Management LP in an Oct. 18 letter
to American Chief Executive Officer Tom Horton criticized the
carrier’s negotiations with a creditor group, saying American
wasn’t being “sufficiently transparent.”

Marathon yesterday asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane to
order an examiner to investigate the transactions with American
Eagle, saying it isn’t possible for AMR management to undertake
“an objective and critical review.”

Sean Collins, a spokesman for Fort Worth, Texas-based
American, said in an e-mailed statement that the company “will
respond to the examiner motion in due course and address it
before the bankruptcy court.”

The case is In re AMR Corp., 11-15463, U.S. Bankruptcy
Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).